Blue legged hermit crab eggs?!

[Connie99]

Hello, my blue legged hermit crab has what I think are brown coloured eggs! When will these hatch? Any help is muchly appreciated!

 

[Lrood]

I have no idea of the incubation time. I collect hermit crab larvae in my snagger almost every night. I've never tried to raise any though. I usually just toss them in my dragonets tank for extra snacks.

 

[kizanne]

I have no idea of the incubation time. I collect hermit crab larvae in my snagger almost every night. I've never tried to raise any though. I usually just toss them in my dragonets tank for extra snacks.

+1 dragonets love them.

Most shrimp and crab have a long period where they need a lot of small food - phyto and small meaty things to come to the point they will settle and morph. It is possible I suppose but I don't read regular about hermit crabs reproducing in tanks. The babies are great tank food though. Corals, dragonets, wrasses, just about any fish enjoy them.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Additionally, what I've read about hermit crab larvae indicates they need very tiny shells after metamorphosizing. Or...that might be bubble algae and not eggs...

 

[Connie99]

I've got a couple really tiny shells, if I could measure them, probably about 0.3 mm big so they are really small. How big will the zoeas be?

 

[Lrood]

The larvae are tiny, mine seem about 1.5-2mm (pictured below). I'm not sure how long the larval stage is before they would settle & look for tiny shells. Many crustaceans have long larval stages, from 30 days (such as peppermint shrimp) and up to way longer.